Godzilla in Orem

Just some photos I took, and paintings I painted...

Some of my older paintings: "Three Wise Ones", "Moose and Fishes", "Almost Heaven:Cabelas"

This is the painting I finished yesterday. It is of my mother and her Tiger Lillies.  Oil on canvas. 

Thanks for the nice comments...actually 2 different pugs!  the running pug is our rescue..Frankie..it is funny that he is running, usually he just stands around watching Jesse James run..he is the smaller one. The snow is already about gone here but a lot in the mountains.

I managed to get to the studio today and finished the "flower" painting and started a wolf painting. I will post photos of the finished one tomorrow and still have to take photo of wolf one.  It is already named "The Misfortune of Being Born West of Yellowstone".  I usually don't get political in my painting. But the taking of wolves off protection list and initiating hunts in the state of Idaho is distressing.  Then a Utah State Legislator wanted to introduce a bill to outlaw wolves in Utah.  He wants any wolf that crosses the state border to be shot on sight!  A few questions..How do you intend to get the Federal Govt. to look the other way when the wolf is still protected here? How do you teach a wolf about the State border? Will he see and understand the Welcome to Utah, Life Elevated signs and know he is not welcome?   Just want to know!  

If you want a good read..Sherry Simpsons' "Killing Wolves" essay is intense.  She says "Something tightens in me when I think of her terrible beauty, the lovely sharpness of her teeth, the predatory brilliance of her gaze."

Simpson says "Inevitably the wolf becomes a distorted reflection of the human psyche, a heavy burden for one species to carry. We can hardly bear the the burden of being human ourselves."

"Wolves don't wander like dogs. They know where they are going. Sometime soon, they'll be back; they are always circling the world with their feet." Sherry Simpson from "Killing Wolves"

There are so many good bits in this essay.  

I could do a whole series of artwork from this one essay and then throw in some Jack London quotes and look out!

This might lend itself to a series of bold drawings.

today..i messed around on the computer..ripping music from my cds to my computer. So wasting plenty of time..I never made it up to paint.  Shame on me. Then guitar lesson. Beginning..and hoping to make it work. It snowed and then it all melted..here are the photos I took....

Please bear with my musings, since today they are very personal.  So after looking at other blogs..I feel that I am a bit boring!!!!  But my art is not...so maybe that will keep me going.  Today I struggle with motivation.  Too much time on computer and watching Olympics this week and not enough really getting to the art in a big way.  

How do I get to making art in a big way? Don't I want to do it? Do I have the capacity to do more and more art? Is anyone interested in my art? Because, in spite of my logic telling me that the art is mine and I don't need people to like it, I just need to do it for myself; I want viewers, I want appreciators, I want "atta boys", I want to sell stuff. I think I need this validation almost as much as I need air.

Maybe that is why I loved going back to college, I got feedback, people saw me working, they had opinions, they seemed to like me and my art. I knew graduating would tear me from the safety and warmth I felt at school. I knew at my age I could handle the loneliness and rejection notices, and lack of attention and adulation.  I knew this, I know this, I don't like it.

So admittedly I am needy. I am insecure and depressed.  Not news or new.  The trick is getting me to just do art and continue to put myself out there in spite of how difficult it is to do.  I have read the books, I have attended events, I have made myself be more friendly, less shy. I continue to paint. So what is the problem?  Eric Maisel would say it is because I have lost the meaning in what I do. Maybe so. But I think I am lazy, scared, and simply want someone to tell me what to do..and since that is abhorrent to me..then I will continue to paint and try new things and ignore that childlike desire to go take a nap instead of confront my art.

Also I just need a better work ethic...more painting!!!!  

Feb. 21, 2010

This is the painting,oil on board, that I finished today, "Tattered Plaid"....then I started the next oil on canvas with its' first layer of paint.

I took a whole day and got my artspan website done..whew!  Computers seem to take so much time away from the actual art.  But I felt it was necessary to keep up with the times. When I see an artist I like I google them and if they don't have a web presence I move on.  So I assume it would be the same for others, especially younger people.  I am at kayhale.artspan.com  .   

I started a new painting but haven't taken a photo yet..so no new photos today.

Feb. 12,2010

So I have not been painting because my back is hurting with a muscle spasm. Makes it hard to think creatively while in pain. Which makes me appreciate all the artists who work hurt, injured, disabled.  Of course this happens when I am trying to ramp up my painting in anticipation of the open studio and the Spring Salon in Springville!  So I will spend the weekend  taking some photos of artwork, matting and framing, and hopefully getting a website and adding artwork to redbutton. 

I teach drawing at the Roberts Craft Store in American Fork and I need to revamp that to make it more adult friendly. Funny thing..I don't feel comfortable with the young and pre teens in the class.  I feel they are not there to improve.  Also I feel like some of my instructions and help are ignored, over their heads, or just falling on deaf ears.  I may be cutting my own throat but I am thinking of demanding 5-6 weeks worth of payment at the beginning, and structuring the class to be inclusive in that time frame.  Also would like to limit it to adults so the adults who come are comfortable. It would be nice to do step by step, class by class instruction and build up to final projects ec.  I think it will be a better outcome for students instead of sporadic and repeated instruction.

Giving in to the back, my plans to finish setting up small bedroom as office space/guestroom/ mini watercolor studio has ben set aside for now.  Instead I will paint some small watercolors at my equally small kitchen table and try to get some enjoyment out of that!

Feb. 7, 2010

Here is the ink drawing ("Burnt(1988 Yellowstone)") that was juried into Statewide Black and White Show at the Eccles Community Art Center in Ogden, Utah. The other one is untitles and a batik with 300lb. paper. It did not get into the show.

I still am ambivilant about this show. It seems an honor to get in (165 out of 320 entries). Yet the winning artworks are less than good and certainly the honorable mentions were better. There are always some really good entries and some mediocre ones that get in and thankfully the better ones outnumbered the bad ones. ( I feel I fall somewhere in the upper middle).  I wasn't expecting recognition..getting in seemed good enough. I am happy for the exposure..still..when mediocre is winning, I question my decision to enter.  I won't diss the venue though. It is a neat place..a big old Victorian mansion.  

Feb.3,2010

So after years of painting I realized that I never did detail very well.  Hard for me to settle down and carefully manipulate a brush to create things the way I want them to look.  I have a plan, an idea I visualize..then I find myself limited by the inability to get the medium, or the brush or both to look the way I wanted.  Then I usually have to decide to accept that and create the painting in a different way. 

I have a certain style or look and partly it is due to the way I can't see anymore...eyesight is bad, and the way I can't use a brush.  There the truth is out and yet I still like some of my paintings the way they turn out.  I figured out this morning while thinking about this that I can get detailed in drawings if I want to have work that looks a certain way and the paintings can be freer and more expressionistic... I am not a classical painter..but sure wish I was.  

I have thought about going to an atelier that would force me to be more detailed and realistic.  It would be good to have the skill even if it didn't translate to my paintings.  

Still..maybe I should just try other media..like pastels to get the detail.  And yet I like my style as it is....this is a weird situation to be in.